New to the World
This is the first episode of Barbarian Clans, a show written by Gingerear. To my friend Stormy, for giving me the encouragement to start. This entire show is rated Worse, and for good reasons. You have been warned. Darkkit woke up and stretched. She shook herself to rid her long black fur of the dust. "Hey!" her sister, Ivykit, squealed. Darkkit turned her bright amber gaze to Ivykit. Her littermate's dark silver tabby fur bristled. "What was that for?" Ivykit snapped. "I just wanted to get the dust out my pelt," Darkkit explained. "Yeah right," Ivykit growled. "Great StarClan, you take every single accident as an attack on your life!" Darkkit yowled. Well, it was not really a yowl, since Darkkit was only three quarter-moons old, and she could not make such commanding noises yet. The sound was more like a loud mewl. Ivykit glared at her littermate with her dark green eyes. "I'm telling mother," the silver tabby she-kit announced, and she ran off. Darkkit looked around the subterranean den. It looked completely deserted. Is everyone outside? the black she-kit wondered. Obviously, she would not find any answers if she stayed in the den, so she went over to the entrance and walked outside for the first time. The jet-black she-kit let out a squeal of shock as blinding light poured into her sensitive eyes. "You'll get used to it," Darkkit heard one of her older sisters, Nightblossom, meow. "Stupid piece of fox-dung," she also heard Ivykit mutter under her breath. Because her vision was rapidly adjusting to the sunlight, Darkkit could, and did, scan the area for a familiar, dark-gray-striped pelt. She found it and pounced on it. "Hey!" her sister squealed. "That's enough," their mother, Tawnystar, a tall, lean, dark brown tabby with orange patches, snapped. Tawnystar grabbed her kit's black scruff with her long muzzle and moved her about ten kitsteps away from her sister. "Cats of OakClan!" the dark tabby yowled. Darkkit looked up at her mother's long, narrow face. The leader's amber eyes burned with inner fires of pride."Darkkit and Ivykit have now emerged from the den," the leader continued on. Darkkit looked at her Clanmates. They were all her siblings, except for Stormfrost, the deputy and her father, and Leopardgaze, her mother's younger sister. That was how the Clans worked. Despite the fact these cats were all her kin, Darkkit did not feel related to them at all. The members of OakClan, her clan, seemed to always be angry for some reason, and for the life of her, she could not figure out why. At that moment, her Clanmates" gazes of passionless curiosity chilled Darkkit's soul and made her fluff up her fur and shiver, despite the warm weather. "Since they are only three quarter-moons old, they are too young to come hunting with us," Tawnystar went on. "When they are a moon old, they will, as custom decrees. Until we return from hunting later today, Leopardgaze will watch them and begin to teach them basic skills of hunting, fighting, and watching for enemies so they will be ready to join us in a quarter-moon. The rest of you, follow me." With those words, Tawnystar turned and walked off. The rest of OakClan followed her, disappearing into the undergrowth of the forest, except for Ivykit, Darkkit, and Leopardgaze. "Kits, over here," Leopardgaze meowed. Darkkit and her sister padded over to the mottled dark brown tabby. “Attack each other,” the warrior meowed. The black she-kit was knocked over. Claws sank into her dark pelt and tore at her skin, causing her to bleed. Darkkit squealed in agony. “Stop!” Leopardgaze yowled. Ivykit scrambled off of Darkkit and started licking the blood off of one of her forepaws. Darkkit stared at the crimson stain. Then her amber gaze looked down at her flank. Her black flank was covered in wet red tabby stripes. Then Darkkit fainted. Darkkit promptly woke up when she was swatted into the air. Just as her senses cleared, she felt air rush past her, and she saw the ground getting closer and closer. The young kit screamed until she was cut off by the impact with the grassy surface. “That was pathetic!” Leopardgaze roared. Darkkit looked up. Leopardgaze was stalking over to her. The warrior’s piercing golden gaze burned with anger. “You didn’t even put up a fight!” “Ivykit had her claws unsheathed,” Darkkit snapped as she scrambled to her paws. Leopardgaze loomed over the black kit. “That’s what she was supposed to do,” the tabby she-cat snapped. “Warriors don’t fight with their claws sheathed.” “But we’re Clanmates!” Darkkit protested. “Littermates! We don’t need to fight each other, do we? You don’t fight with Tawnystar!” Leopardgaze promptly slashed the young kit’s ear. Darkkit screamed in pain. “Shut up!” Leopardgaze caterwauled. “OakClan can’t afford this softness. Get back to training! I know you can fight – you were fighting your sister earlier!” “I was just playing!” the jet-black kit snapped, glaring at the warrior with her bright amber eyes, fiery with her determination. “All I did was pounce on her, for StarClan’s sake! I wasn’t going to hurt her!” “Yeah right,” Darkkit heard Ivykit growl. Then a dark silver blur rushed toward her. Darkkit countered the attack. Ivykit lunged for her littermate again. Darkkit dodged and lightly scratched Ivykit’s flank, without drawing blood. “Really, Darkkit!” Leopardgaze yowled in exasperation. Fires of pure rage and hatred burned in Ivykit’s dark green eyes. Darkkit’s fur bristled in horror. Why does everyone hate each other? she thought. The kit had no time to continue thinking, because Ivykit attempted to pounce on her again. Darkkit rolled over and shoved the dark silver tabby away with her legs. Ivykit screamed. Darkkit rolled back onto her feet. Ivykit charged for her again. Darkkit moved over to the side and knocked her littermate over. This sparring continued throughout the morning. Then Ivykit fell over exhausted. Darkkit had grown tired too, and she panted, her pink tongue lolling. “Well done,” Leopardgaze purred. “You both did well. Ivykit, you really should work on thinking of something other than going straight for your enemy. Darkkit, you need to cause more damage. But other than that, that was a great session.” “I’m going to have to agree with Leopardgaze,” a cat the kits did not know meowed from the bushes. Darkkit jumped, her fur as stiff and straight as a tree. Ivykit rose to her paws and whirled around. Leopardgaze just glared as a short-legged dark orange tabby and white she-cat walked out of the bushes. “Are these Tawnystar’s new kits?” she mewed. “Yes,” Leopardgaze growled curtly. “What are you doing here, Leafsong?” “You look a lot like Flameclaw,” Darkkit commented to the stranger. Flameclaw was one of her older brothers, a dark ginger tabby with a white muzzle, chest, paws, and leaf-green eyes. Leafsong had green eyes too, the exact same shade as her brother’s. “I should hope so,” Leafsong mewed to Darkkit. “I am his littermate, after all.” Darkkit’s jaw dropped in shock. “You can’t be!” Ivykit hissed, her ears partly flattened. “You would be part of OakClan if you were our sister!” “That’s because she’s a traitor,” Leopardgaze explained flatly. Then a thunderous caterwaul rang through the air. Darkkit recognized the voice – it was her mother. Then Tawnystar and the rest of OakClan burst through the bushes. “Leafsong,” Tawnystar hissed, her muscles bunched, her body ready to spring. “H-h-hel-l-lo, M-mother,” Leafsong stammered, her fur fluffing up, fear-scent coming off of her in waves. “I suppose you want to come back to the Clan?” Tawnystar meowed. Leafsong nodded. “Why should I let you? You still have a kit,” Tawnystar went on. “She’s considered at traitor because she had kits?” Darkkit mewed, completely and utterly confused. Tawnystar glared at her youngest daughter with a look of pure rage. Her eyes blazed with anger. Darkkit cowered in terror. OakClan’s leader turned her gaze back to Leafsong. “How – “ Leafsong began to ask. “We saw him bumbling after the FernClan warriors,” Tawnystar explained, cutting her daughter off. “FernClan?” Darkkit echoed in surprise. Stormfrost, who was sitting nearby Tawnystar, turned his small turquoise eyes to Darkkit. The black kit’s long fur rose yet again as her gaze locked with the massive, dark gray tom. His long fur remained smooth but there was a seriousness in his deep voice as he ordered, “Be quiet.” “You gave the kit to FernClan,” Tawnystar snarled to Leafsong, pretending the conversation did not happen. “You didn’t want him,” Leafsong spat. “You banished me from the Clan, hoping that the kits and I would die. But I didn’t, and he didn’t. His sisters did, though – because of you.” “Good riddance,” Tawnystar hissed. Darkkit’s eyes grew into wide amber orbs due to her shock. The she-kit nearly fainted. How could anyone say “Good riddance,” when kits die? How can Mother say that? “Mother,” Leafsong meowed. “I want to put the past behind. I’ve learned from my mistakes, and I want to rejoin OakClan. I will never mess around with rovers again.” Darkkit had no idea what a rover was. But then Tawnystar snarled, “Yeah right. If you had learned your lesson, you wouldn’t have gone anywhere near the Clan of the kit’s father.” “The kit needs someone to look after him, and OakClan wouldn’t,” Leafsong pointed out. “No. And we won’t look after you, either.” With those words, Tawnystar sprang. Leafsong started to run away, causing Tawnystar’s long, oval white paws to hit the ground instead of Leafsong. But Tawnystar was determined. The leader of OakClan raced after her kit, and just before Leafsong completely vanished from Darkkit’s vision, Tawnystar’s long brown forelegs reached out, letting the she-cat’s long, hooked claws snag on Leafsong’s long, soft, fluffy fur. Leafsong twisted around and raised one white forepaw to defend herself, but before she could strike, Tawnystar lunged forward, wrapping her long muzzle around Leafsong’s orange and white neck. Darkkit gasped in horror. Her bright amber eyes darted from Clanmate to Clanmate. Stormfrost was stoic and unresponsive, as usual. Satisfaction gleamed in Leopardgaze’s bright golden eyes. Bluescar, a battle-scarred blue gray tom, sat still. Mistfeather, a long-haired smoky gray she-cat, did not react. Nightblossom was thinking about something, but Darkkit could not detect any remorse in the ginger-flecked black she-cat’s blue eyes. Silversky, who usually put an opinion in on everything, licked one of her forepaws, her black-splotched silver fur remaining unruffled. Kestrelspots, a blue-gray and cream tom, and Mauvepool, a lavender-gray tom, simply sat and watched. Harepaw, long-bodied and low-slung like Leafsong, and Dawnpaw a golden brown she-cat with white legs like Leafsong, exchanged emotionless glances. Ivykit’s green eyes shimmered with delight. And Flameclaw, Leafsong’s littermate, just sat there and washed his chest, looking perfectly relaxed. Darkkit felt sick. Tawnystar slowly walked back to her Clan, leaving the body where it fell to the ground. “OakClan, let this be a lesson to you,” she meowed dully. “You just murdered your own daughter!” Darkkit wailed. Leopardgaze swatted the black kit. “Shut up,” Leopardgaze snarled. Darkkit just stared at the mottled tabby, not sure how to react. “Flameclaw, you will stay here and train the kits until we return at sundown,” Tawnystar went on. Then she walked away, and everyone else followed her, except Flameclaw and the youngest members of the Clan. A few moments after everyone left, Darkkit turned her burning, rage-filled gaze to Flameclaw and screeched, “How could you just sit there and let Tawnystar kill you littermate, you sick, twisted piece of fox-dung!” “What else was I supposed to do?” Flameclaw choked, overwhelmed by his grief. Sorrow poured into his normally bright leaf-green eyes. “I can’t fight Tawnystar – she’s the toughest she-cat in the Clan. That’s why she’s leader. Besides, toms can’t intervene in a fight between she-cats of the same Clan.” “Why?” Darkkit demanded. “That’s the way things are,” Flameclaw murmured. “You’re new to the world, and you wouldn’t understand.” Before Darkkit could protest any more, Flameclaw ordered coldly, “Get back to training.” Darkkit turned and countered yet another one of Ivykit’s charges, sending the gray-striped tabby into the air. As the jet-black she-kit watch her sister fall to the ground, she realized Flameclaw and Leafsong had probably gone through similar fighting sessions when they were kits. Why are we learning to fight like this in the first place? Darkkit wondered. So we can be prepared to kill our own kin?